Monday, November 1, 2010

Spooky Cross and Tri-Guy to Die For.

The weekend didn't start like this, but it whirlwinded and ended this way. Friday morning I set my Felt back up for cross racing after having it loaned out. Then I went home, went to school, ate lunch and went back to work. At work the new warranty frame had arrived. It is all BB30 compatible and has a different brake routing as well.
I didn't bother to try and build it because I am getting a cool adapter that will allow me to run my Shimano crank inside the BB30 bearings. The cool part is when I get ready to put a BB30 I can just slide it right through.
Friday night I went home, hung out, and got all my junk ready for the race day fun that would start the next afternoon. I prepped my Surly as a back up bike but it never even came off the car all weeekend. It was good to know it was there if I needed it though. I raised my bar height just a tad over my previous set up and it Felt good. (see what I did there?)
Saturday morning was fun, I ate breakfast, got super nervous, went to work. I glued some tubular tires and sold a mountain bike. I then unboxed my warranty frame and hung it on a frame display just for shits n giggles. Then I left for the race.
At the race I did some preriding, warming up, and general stressing. Super Awesome Courtney A(customer with a runnning problem) showed up to be my photographer, cheerleader, key holder, and generally just be awesome. I had a really good race, Andrea heckled the hell out of me and made me feel worthless all race. John King from the big boy M&B squad roadie rode my wheel and put the pressure on me all day. It wasn't until about 2 laps to go that I finally gapped him off my wheel and rode away to 2nd. I had a lot of fun with the race, even hopped this one small barrier every lap. It was good to show off a tad, it boosted my confidence and hopefully was unsettling to Mr. King sitting on my wheel.
Sunday was more of the same with a different twist. I knew I could push myself just a little harder for the whole race than I had the day before and lined up at the front, under a hoodie to stay good and warm at the start. Some guy pushed his way to the front and half wheeled me only to sit in the way when Schmidt (race official) said go so he could fiddle with and start his "Garmin wrist mounted clusterfuckness" of in my way. I got out and got hammering, passed everyone by the second cone in the open field string-em-out start and lead for the first half of the first lap. Three guys passed me on an open section. Two were uber-fast Los Locos tri guys on mountain bikes with just sick levels of fitness, the other being Boomer on SS. Hit the pavement and it was me, Mr. King, and Garmin all together. 2nd lap the King and I gapped Garmin off our wheel on the pavement and sorta did what we did the day before, I hammered and he held on. I tried something a little different and it actually worked out. He could hold my wheel in the singletrack, so I couldn't shed him there. I knew that from the day before. I just slowed down a tad in the singletrack so he would still be working, but I would have a little more to snap with in the open fields and stuff. He attacked me on the last hill of the last lap and ended up gassing himself trying to shake me. I ran like a mad man through the barrier and took him back, then rode away from him. He saved what he had left for the Masters race.

I ended up almost naked, beer poured on me, and generally intoxicated with my cash n prizes neatly tucked into a speed bottom (see above, if your eyes still work)

Standover height is premium, but you probably didn't notice a bike in the picture.